Discussion

In the section about viruses, our textbook discusses how new strains of flu arise via viral reassortment (page 245). This is also known as genetic reassortment. Read the following recent article from MIT News about tracking the spread of bird flu that discusses the impact of reassortment: http://news.mit.edu/2017/tracking-spread-bird-flu-alaska-north-america-0317. Next, address the following:

• Discuss the factors that make Alaskan waters in the summertime an optimal place and time for new strains of influenza to arise by genetic reassortment.
• What do you think is the most interesting aspect of this situation?